Trivia: A staple of British soap operas before she was even out of her teens, Anna Friel experienced the type of fame encouraged by tabloids and Internet shrines before getting a chance to prove her talents on the stage and screen. Born in Rochdale, Lancashire on July 12, 1976, Friel began acting as a teenager, performing with theatres across Britain. In 1990, she made her television debut with a role on the BBC series In Their Shoes, and was soon appearing in a number of popular TV series, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale. She received her greatest amount of notice to date when she was cast on the soap opera Brookside in 1993; the resulting popularity of her role on the show made the waifish, saucer-eyed actress something of a celebrity in her native country.In 1997--two years after leaving Brookside--Friel made her film debut in The Land Girls. A World War II drama, it featured Friel, Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack as its titular heroines. Although the film was virtually unheard of outside the UK, it received generally favorable reviews. The following year, Friel appeared in two more films, The Stringer and Rogue Trader, the latter of which had her starring opposite Ewan McGregor. That same year, she won great acclaim on the London stage for her performance in Patrick Marber's Closer. A trenchant commentary on love and sex, it featured the young actress as an enigmatic stripper, and allowed her to work alongside such performers as Natasha Richardson, Ciaran Hinds and Rupert Graves. The play proved to be so successful that it moved to Broadway the next year, where it continued to win accolade after accolade. Friel herself won a Drama Desk award for Best Supporting Actress for her work. That same year, she continued to broaden her resume and fan base with starring roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sunset Strip, the former of which featured her as Hermia, and the latter of which saw her experiencing the ups and downs of life in 1972 Los Angeles. Following roles in The War Bride and Me Without You (both 2001) Friel continued to develop her onscreen persona, and with Richard Donner's time travel adventure Timeline (2003) the actress remained poised for the role that would provide her with her widest exposure to date.In 2005, Friel appeared in the sports drama Goal!, about a Los Angeles teenager with dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. She also appeared alongside Kevin Pollak in the drama Niagra Motel, which found a group of seemingly disparate strangers connecting when they pass through the same motel. Then in 2007, Friel joined the cast of the new series Pushing Daisies, about a man who falls in love with a deceased woman after he discovers he can communicate with the dead. Over the next several years, the actress would remain active ons creen, appearing memorably in films like Limitless and London Boulevard.

Trivia: Born in 1976, character actor Danny McBride took his Hollywood bow in the early 2000s and frequented mostly youth-oriented comedies, often though not always with a visceral element. These included Jody Hill's cult hit The Foot Fist Way (which he also co-scripted with Hill and Ben Best), the Farrelly Brothers' raunchy remake The Heartbreak Kid (2007), and the Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed action comedy Pineapple Express (2008), which starred Seth Rogen. The 2009 Observe and Report -- a by-the-throat comedy about a psychotic mall guard -- re-teamed co-star McBride with lead Rogen and director Hill. In 2009, McBride added television to his résumé, starring as a washed-up ex-baseball player in the HBO sitcom Eastbound & Down, which he also executive produced; the following year, he collaborated with director Green once again on the fantasy-comedy Your Highness. He had a small but memorable part in the Oscar-nominated George Clooney vehicle Up In the Air. He reteamed with David Gordon Green and James Franco for the fantasy pot comedy Your Highness in 2011, lending his vocal talents to Kung Fu Panda 2 that same year.

Trivia: Comic actor and writer Jorma Taccone first started to make a name for himself in the world of comedy as a member of the comedy troupe Lonely Island, the same group that gave Andy Samberg the exposure that helped land him on Saturday Night Live. Taccone rode the trio's on-line success into appearances on Channel 101 as well as the occasional appearance on Saturday Night Live. He and Samberg teamed up in the comedy Hot Rod in 2007, the same year Taccone contributed to the script for Parental Guidance Suggested.

Trivia: Matt Lauer left Ohio University only four credits away from a degree, but by that point the 22-year-old was working steadily in local news as both a producer and an on-air personality. As he progressed, working through larger and larger markets, he honed his interviewing skills hosting a variety of local-interest talk shows. In the early '90s, Lauer landed at the NBC-owned local station in New York, which led to him occasionally appearing on The Today Show, eventually becoming the show's regular newsreader in 1994. He ascended to the co-anchor spot beside Katie Couric on January 6, 1997. During his time on the show, he conducted a number of memorable interviews, including a contentious conversation with Tom Cruise about psychology and the first national interview with Hillary Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal became public knowledge. Lauer also became known for a recurring segment called "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer," in which he would travel to a different place in the world every day for a week or more.

Trivia: Bobb'e J. Thompson skirted to fame as a child actor well before his teens, initially with a small but colorful and energetic supporting role as the pint-sized Tupac in the unofficial Three Men and a Baby update My Baby's Daddy (2003), then with an ongoing small screen characterization as the infatuated Stanley on the situation comedy That's So Raven. Thompson provided one of the voices in the CG-animated adventure comedy Shark Tale (2004) and contributed to OutKast mainstay Bryan Barber's offbeat, inventive musical drama Idlewild (2006), before teaming up with Vince Vaughn in the holiday comedy Fred Claus, and Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott in the acerbic farce Role Models (2008). Alongside his film work, Thompson culled favorable attention for his prominent contributions to the youth-oriented urban dance video JammX Kids: Can't Dance Don't Want To, which afforded him the opportunity to show off his flair for urban music and footwork.

Trivia: Studied and performed improv comedy during the start of the original Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City. Was a member of the Naked Babies sketch-comedy troupe with comedians Rob Corddry, Seth Morris and John Ross Bowie at the UCB. Was one of the panelists on the popular VH1 show Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins. Starred in a series of commercials for Sonic Drive-In. Won the Webby award for Best Individual Performance in 2015 for College Humor's If Google Was a Guy.

Trivia: A bit player and occasional scriptwriter on features, Ben Best made his entrée into show business in the mid- to late 2000s, by authoring the screenplay and playing one of the leads in independent director Jody Hill's low-budget martial arts comedy The Foot Fist Way (2006). Best followed that up with small on-camera assignments in A-listers including Superbad (2007) and What Happens in Vegas (2008).

Trivia: Grew up in Portugal and Colombia. Performed amateur theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland at age 9. Made her American film debut in the horror film Headspace, which was also her first American film audition. Is a former model and was photographed for the 2004 Pirelli Calendar. The character she plays on The Walking Dead, Jadis, was written to be either male or female.

Trivia: Svelte, raven-haired Israeli beauty Moran Atias graduated to film roles via a successful and lucrative career as a fashion model. Atias debuted on celluloid with a highly visible supporting role in Italian director Luciano Melchionna's 2005 thriller Gas, then subsequently teamed up with shockmeister Dario Argento for his supernatural horror film Mother of Tears (2007). In that film, Atias played the "mother" of the title, Mater Lacrimarum -- the last survivor of three millennia-old witches.

Trivia: Actor, stuntman, and college baseball player Michael Papajohn got his start in show business while he was attending Louisiana State University, where he played for the LSU Tigers. After having the opportunity to perform some stunts in the sports movie Everybody's All American in 1988, Papajohn began pursuing stunt and acting roles, appearing in movies like The Last Boy Scout and Mr. Baseball. He would find consistent acting work over the coming years, frequently making small appearances. He played an unnamed thug in 2000's Charlie's Angels and a security guard in the 2002 comedy The Hot Chick, and continued to take on several roles per year throughout the 2000s, notably appearing in I Know Who Killed Me, Spider-Man 3, and Terminator Salvation.